Abstract
Wolf culled from his observations three (January 18, 1798, October 10, 1802, and October 19, 1819) which seemed to be reconcilable with Lescarbault’s planet, and passed the information on to Le Verrier.1 Radau, however, objected that the planet, or rather black spot, of 1798 could not be Vulcan if it was to be identified with the planet of 1802 and 1819. Using the latter observations only in combination with that of Lescarbault, Radau deduced the period of Vulcan to be 38.5 days, not 19.7 days, and declared the planet lay in an orbit inclined to the ecliptic by less than 1° 5′. This was rough, to say the least, but it did lead to definite expectations: Transits of Vulcan across the Sun were expected to occur on March 29, and April 2, 4, and 7, 1860.2 Astronomers around the world awaited these events but though the surface of the Sun was carefully scrutinized the result was ... nothing.3
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Notes and References
R. Wolf, “Sur quelques Periodes qui semblent se rapporter, à les Passages de la Planète Lescarbault sur le Soleil,” Comptes Rendu 1, 482 (1860).
M. R. Radeau [sic], “Future Observations of the Supposed New Planet,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 20, 195 (1860).
Reports from Ellery at Victoria Observatory, Scott at Sydney, and Tennant at Madras were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 20, 344 (1860). A thorough search was undertaken by H. P. Tuttle, at the behest of G. P. Bond, director of the Harvard Observatory, throughout April 1860. “My instructions were,” Tuttle later recalled, “to begin my work as soon after sunrise as possible and continue to observe the solar surface twice every hour until nearly sundown.” Tuttle used a solar eyepiece and observed the Sun on 18 days during the month. He reported no planets seen, only ordinary sunspots; however, he noted, “what I did see with my right eye whenever I looked at a lighted lamp during the following three months, was all the colors of the solar spectrum! Had I continued these observations for a couple of months longer I should have ruined the sight of my right eye forever....” See Tuttle, “Reminis-cecenes of a Search for ‘Vulcan’ in 1860.”
E. Liais, “Sur la Nouvelle Planète announce par M. Lescarbault” (letter dated March 8, 1860) Astronomische Nachrichten 52, 369 (no. 1248) (1860).
L’espace céleste et la natur tropical (Paris, 1866), 495.
Ibid., 498.
Liais, “Sur la Nouvelle Planète,” 370.
Liais, L’espace céleste, 498.
Richard A. Proctor, Myths and Marvels of Astronomy (London: Chatto & Windus, 1878), 321.
Liais, L’espace céleste, 498.
Ibid., 499.
Ibid., 500.
“Recent Discoveries,” 19–20.
W. F. Denning, “A Supposed New Planet,” Science for All 4, 264–270:267 (1893).
J. R. Hind, “Note on a Dark, Circular Spot upon the Sun’s Disk, with Rapid Motion, as Observed by W. Lummis, Esq., of Manchester, 1862, March 20,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 22, 232 (1862). Hind adds that “it is evident, from the sketch, that Mr. Lummis’s estimate of the arc passed over during the twenty-two minutes he watched the spot is much too great. It would be nearer 6‣ than 12.”
J. R. Hind, letter, the London Times, October 19, 1862.
“Lettre de M. Le Verrier addressée a M. le Marechal Vaillant,” Comptes Rendu 60, 1113–1115 (1865).
“Minute Object Seen near the Sun,” Report of Mr. W. S. Gilman, Jr., Astronomical and Meteorological Observations of the U.S. Naval Observatory (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1870), 180.
Noted in W. H. DeShon, Utica Morning Herald, excerpted in Hamilton Literary Monthly (October 1876), 115.
Letter of B. A. Gould, Jr. to Yvon Villarçeau, September 7, 1869, Comptes Rendu 69, 813–814 (1869).
J. R. Hind, “Stellar Objects Seen during the Eclipse of 1869,” Nature 18, 663–664 (1878).
See W. F. Denning’s correspondence in the Astronomical Register 7, 89, 113 (1869); 8, 77–78, 108–109 (1870); 9, 64 (1871).
As noted in Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 148.
J. C. Adams, “Address,” 356.
Simon Newcomb, The Reminiscences of an Astronomer (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1903), 328.
Willy Ley, Watchers of the Skies (New York: Viking, 1966), p. 198.
J. J. Thomson, quoted in Rupert T. Gould, Oddities (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1944), 196.
As noted in Emile Touchet, “La Vie et L’Oeuvre de Camille Flammarion,” Bulletin Société de Astronomique de France 39, 341–365 (1925).
C. Flammarion, Popular Astronomy, 346.
Undated clipping, Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory.
Newcomb, Reminiscences, 329.
Ibid.
Clerke, History of Astronomy, 219 (1885 ed.); 171 (1908 ed.).
Morando, “The Golden Age of Celestial Mechanics,” 229.
U. J. J. Le Verrier to ?? November 2, 1874; in Mary Lea Shane Archives of the Lick Observatory. Someone has written “to G. R Bond” on this letter. However, this cannot be correct; Bond had died in 1865. Almost certainly the letter was to E. S. Holden.
Adams, “Address,” 358–359.
Le Verrier, “Théorie nouvelle du mouvement de la planète Neptune: Remarques sur l’ensemble des théories des huit planètes principales: Mercure, Vénus, la Terre, Mars, Jupiter, Saturne, Uranus et Neptune.” Comptes Rendu 79, 1424 (1874).
Wolf to Le Verrier, letters, August 26 and September 6, 1876, Comptes Rendu 83, 510, 561 (1876).
Richard Proctor, “The Planet Vulcan,” English Mechanic and World of Science 605, 160 (October 27, 1876).
Wolf to Le Verrier, letters of August 26 and September 6, 1876, Comptes Rendu 83, 510, 561 (1876).
Le Verrier to Wolf, September 12, 1876; in R. Wolf, Astronomische Mittheilungen 26, 377–378 (1881).
Le Verrier to Wolf, September 21, 1876; ibid.
Le Verrier to Wolf, September 29, 1876; ibid.
W. H. De Shon, in Hamilton Literary Monthly 115 (October 1876).
Sir G. B. Airy, “Note on the Sunspot of April 4, 1876” (Telegram of October 4, 1876), Nature 14, 534 (1876).
Proctor, Myths and Marvels (1878), 309–326:321.
Lewis Swift to E. E. Barnard, July 13, 1881; Vanderbilt University Archives.
“The Inter-Mercurial Planet,” Scientific American (October 21, 1876), 257.
Fontenrose, “In Search of Vulcan,” 149.
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© 1997 Richard Baum and William Sheehan
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Baum, R., Sheehan, W. (1997). The Phantom of an Anomaly. In: In Search of Planet Vulcan. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6100-6_12
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